HD Notebook

To reduce aggressive interactions, house cows and heifers separately before calving.

By Amanda Smith, Hoard’s Dairyman Associate Editor

As herd animals, cows are highly susceptible to social interactions and hierarchical order. Negative interactions may elicit behavioral changes, which if severe and prolonged, could impair immune status and lead to an elevated incidence of health disorders. Read more

Cooperatives play an important role in community economics

By Patti Hurtgen, Hoard’s Dairyman Online Media Manager

Each year the National Cooperative’s Bank (NCB) generates a list of America’s top 100 cooperatives from the 30,000-plus that serve 350 million members in the United States. Generating the list helps educate the public about the value of cooperatives in society. Read more

When it comes to animal handling, if a cow is not doing what we want her to do, there’s a good chance we did not ask her in the right way.

Having those hard conversations while creating a farm succession plan isn’t fun, but it is necessary.

By Brittany Statz, Hoard’s Dairyman Editorial Intern

My fiancé and I find ourselves having important and sometimes difficult conversations with growing frequency. While some of those talks center around paint swatches and my swollen wedding boards on Pinterest, the most difficult conversations discuss the big decisions we’re going to need to make as we begin to take over his family’s dairy farm. Read more

Throughout their two years of development, the nutrient requirements of dairy heifers vary substantially. “Even though previous research found that feeding higher concentrate diets improved gain and feed efficiency, the concentrate’s ingredients may vary widely,” noted Tamilee Nennich, formerly with Purdue University. Read more

Ration tweaks can soften the blow

By Patti Hurtgen, Hoard’s Dairyman Online Media Manager

“You cannot make a Holstein a Jersey,” teased Tom Jenkins during the Hoard’s Dairyman monthly webinar. Genetics plays a big role in components. We can fine-tune our rations to take advantage of a few scenarios, but there’s no management silver bullet to dramatically bolster components during the hotter months of the year. Read more

Before you send in mastitis and milk quality samples, focus first on what you plan to do with the results.

By Abby Bauer, Hoard’s Dairyman Associate Editor

Milk culturing can be used to identify mastitis pathogens, troubleshoot milk quality problems, monitor pasteurizer systems and more. To get the most benefit from the results, one should keep the end goal in mind even before taking the sample. Read more

Now that they’re pushing for a federal order, the state is willing to look at raising Class 4b prices.

by Dennis Halladay, Hoard’s Dairyman Western Editor

With California’s milk pricing attention turned to the just-started drive for a Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO), Sacramento dropped a big surprise in dairy producers’ laps last Friday: A public hearing on June 3 in Sacramento to consider temporary adjustments to the Class 4b (powder) component of the state’s pricing formula. Read more